"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."
- Dale Carnegie

Monday, November 30, 2015

Star Wars: Darth Vader, Vol. 2: Shadows and Secrets by Kieron Gillen

Rating: ★★★★★

Disclaimer: I read the individual comics.

When it comes to Star Wars comics, I believe Vader is by far one of the best that Marvel has produced and while it maintain a level of authenticity and kept my captivation I felt like this volume showcased a wimpy version of this mysterious and evil Vader that we have come to love and appreciate. With the events of the previous volume, we learn that Vader knows that Luke Skywalker is the one who destroyed the Death Star and is his biological son. He had already known from his encounter with Luke in the Star Wars comics but the wonderful Boba Fett confirmed it.

With this huge information Vader has learned that the Emperor lied to him when he told Vader that Padme had died and so was his unborn children which begins the process of how to destroy the Emperor and Vader needs Luke to come to the Dark side in order to succeed his wish of ruling the Galactic Empire. With that ending we get the introduction into this new volume with Vader making a visit to Tatooine to learn more about Luke and Obi-Wan.

What I loved about this part is in a way Vader is retracing his steps of the past with his relations to Tatooine and he learns a lot about Luke with his lack of Jedi training, his anger to the Empire, and practically Vader killed Luke's aunt and uncle. If it weren't for that mistake Luke would have never left home and seek revenge especially after Obi-Wan Kenobi death. Revenge is one hell of a motivator and Vader couldn't agree more.

Vader's crew which consist of Aphra, 0-0-0, and BT-1 are still doing top secret missions for their master and I love the relationship between Vader and his crew particularly with Aphra. I have feeling in the end she is going to be killed by Vader in order to keep Vader's plan a secret. What I love about her character is because she worships Vader and praises him we see that she is practically the first female to be in his constant presence after Padme and we may see his vulnerability the longer she remains by his side.

Since Vader is working with the Hutts and doing illegal missions that the Empire doesn't know it comes to bite him in the ass with Tagge assigning a new lieutenant to monitor Vader's activities, and with the discovery of this abomination crew of robots who yield lightsabers they are hired to attend to missions of these illegal activities that are happening in Outer Rim.

Pretty much with these descriptions the whole volume becomes this whole circus chase of the Empire trying to find Aphra and her crew while Vader has to carefully maneuver everything in order not to get caught and be successful with his secret plans. By having this drama it portrayed Vader being anxious and to me personally Vader should never be anxious especially over pity drama like in this volume. I can understand being anxious over Luke being strong with the Force or Palpatine grooming someone who can replace Vader but not about illegal activities in order to fund his operations.

In the end I know that this is all gearing up to the epic Vader Down crossover and I am excited for all that jazz. I believe this still gets all the stars for the illustrations, the storytelling, and we get prequel reference in the volume which was wonderful and refreshing to remind many people that the prequels did exist and has an influence to everything of Star Wars.